E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSAfter Tuesday's fiery presidential debate, the heated arguments between GOP candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama showed no signs of cooling on the stump as they tried to cast each other as economic threats to voters in Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
LEESBURG, Va. – In two appearances Wednesday in the critical battleground state of Virginia, Mitt Romney focused on what he called the president's lack of a second term agenda, while avoiding Libya, a major flashpoint from Tuesday night's debate.
"I think it’s interesting that the president still doesn’t have an agenda for a second term. Don’t you think that it’s time for him to finally put together a vision of what he’d do in the next four years if he were elected?" Romney said in Chesapeake, Va. on Wednesday afternoon.
At an evening event in Northern Virginia, Romney continued to work that theme, occasionally revisiting moments from the debate – as President Barack Obama did on the stump after the first debate – with snappier retorts.
"I just have to mention, I remember last night the president also saying about energy," Romney recalled before some 8,000 supporters Wednesday night. "He said, you know, we built pipelines that would go around the earth, and I thought, ‘It's just the one that comes from Canada with the oil is the one that we want, you see?’ And that's the one I'm going to get."
Libya went unmentioned in either appearance on Wednesday.
Alex Brandon / AP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in front of a barn at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, Va. on Wednesday.
The timeline of the attacks and the Obama administration’s response seemed to trip Romney during the debate.
Conservatives had previously said the attacks show the White House’s weakness in terms of foreign policy, and both campaigns spent much of Tuesday night's spin room session with reporters re-litigating the finer points of the administration's declaration of the attack as an act of terror.
"With 20 days left, today was a good day to hammer home the contrast between a candidate who has a plan to fix the economy in Governor Romney and a candidate who doesn't have a record to run on or a plan for the future, that being President Obama," Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden said when asked why Romney didn't talk about Libya Wednesday. "Libya is still an issue with many voters, particularly given the conflicting statements from the president and his administration about the nature of the attack. The American people still have unanswered questions."
Obama campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki offered a different view while discussing the debate with reporters aboard Air Force One today, suggesting that Obama's command of the Libya questions in Tuesday's debate might have shut down conversation on the issue -- for now.
"Our view is that the president – the back-and-forth on Libya last night was one of the best moments for the president, one of the best moments in recent debate history," Psaki said. "And that's because the president made clear that being commander-in-chief is about being a leader. It’s not about political gamesmanship."
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
With a foreign policy debate coming Monday, Romney did make a point of mentioning other global issues at his second stop Wednesday, highlighting the importance of keeping America's military strong and ticking off a handful of world trouble spots he rarely mentions in a typical stump speech.
"I look around the world at North Korea, with its nuclear capability and a very strange dictator. I look at what’s happening throughout the Middle East and Pakistan," Romney said. "I look around North Africa now, with north Mali having been taken by an al-Qaida affiliate, and I recognize the world continues to be dangerous, and the decisions we make now about our military will determine our ability to defend ourselves in the future."
Leave a Comment:
We know Mitt is rich. All of the politicians are rich. Did you know that Congress gets really rich by doing the exact same thing that Martha Stuart did? Get over it. Obama is rich too by our standards. And yes he has investments in China and the Cayman Islands too. They all do... And all these people get HUGE pensions on our tax dollars after they leave office. Yeah we support these a-holes for the rest of their lives and provide security for them too.
Now Romney want your Boss to tell you how to VOTE??? You mean your Boss can call a MANDATORY MEETING to tell you to Vote for Mitt Romney??? What happens if you disagree with your Boss??? Well thanks to Citizens United there are NO PROTECTIONS from getting fired for not agreeing with your Employers Political Views....
REALLY????? What Century are we living in??? Is everyone OK with being told how to vote by your Boss??? Is Everyone OK with not being able to disagree with your Boss without FEAR of economic reprisal???
Does the simple fact of being a Business Owner give you the distinction of having HIGHER MORAL FIBER THAN THEIR EMPLOYEES???
My God we are moving backwards in time back to the Relationship between Land Owner and SERF.... Didnt we fight a war with the King of England over being told what to think, what to say and how to be??? What about FREEDOM??? Is that Only for those who have Money, Own Land, Own Businesses??? Can your LANDLORD TELL YOU HOW YOU SHOULD VOTE or he will have to raise your rent???? How about getting a Loan??? Can a Bank make you sit infront of a Mitt Romney presentation for an Hour and THEN you can apply for that Loan????
This cant be America, Not 21st Century America anyway.... My God are you people Really going to Vote NOT FOR THIS MAN PER SE' But for this kind LINE OF THINKING??? Money= Morality= Authority= Job Security???
I'm Sick to my stomach
Romney looks down on half the country
Obama looks down on all of the country.
"...There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives..."
What proof do you have that statement is wrong?
Romney is such a piece of $hitt. Just listen to his "jokes" at Smith dinner. All aimed in campaign style at Obama. Mittney has no honor, no civility. Tuesday's debate must have really hurt, buddy.
Pundits, dem pols you need to really focus on the post-Eisenhower economics history (point out Ike had 90% tax rate on the richest's top bracket if you want though during the era we became so rich about 1950-70).... it can be shown that the Reagan-Bush Sr. 12 years lowered that top end tax bracket to even lower than Bush Jr.'s, like 28-31% from 1988-1992 AND we still had the next worst recession in the last 30 or so years in 1991 just a little better than Bush Jr's 2008 great recession. So there is recent history that must be brought up and talked about to drive home the point that Reagan's trickle down economics that Bush Sr. carried on with to 1992 really cause the last MAJOR recession of 1991. I have relatives that lost 20-30% of the value of their home in 1991-1993 from that recession, when they took a big hit when they sold it.
So if pundits and pols do not show the CYCLE of problems like stock market crashes and recessions and high inflation during Repub president years back at least to Nixon-Ford then the whole world will screw up as our History Teachers say and not learn from our past, will repeat it again. Nothing Romney/Ryan/McConnel/Boehner indicate gives me any assurance their approaches will not end up like Bush Sr and Bush Jr getting us back into a GREAT Recession or even Depression again.
As for the wanting to jack up military spending by 20% when our Generals and Admirals are not asking for that and say they don't need it, what can we assume Romney/Ryan want that for? I thinky they want a Republican Guard or equal of SS create for their Monarchy and they will get the judges and congress to allow more than 2 terms so they can rule the USA and Earth eventually when they sell our country to China (they will share Monarchy with their Chinese King).
So if Pundits and Econ Experts do not ream them over and over with history showing their trickle down failed twice into big recessions 1991 and 2008, and make them explain what they are going to spend 20% increase in military like making their Republican Guard/SS or something, they will be unprofessional at the least. Use the generals and admirals, retired too, for drilling into this major change in spending which will of course kill the middle and working class as well as the poor with cuts in social and education/scholarships/laons programs.
NEWS FLASH Just in Romney says he still can't sit comfortably , as his backside is still sore from the B*TCH SLAP Obama put on him.
Just like his boss Romney . Republican Governor Todd Akin {yeah the dipstick that called rape legitimate} failed to report his pension income for the last ten years . But it's ok because it was just an accident. Nothing but freaks liars and thieves the Republican party.
The bottom line here is, the current man in charge with his administration is not getting the job done. Thus, we need a change (again) with someone who knows how to lead, speak, and act without talking in rhetoric or circles. A true leader does not need a teleprompter to speak in public. "Bam-Bam" is the blind leading the blind.
If you took away Romney's $250,000,000 (acquired through rich parents and friends and their contacts) and all his rich buddy buddies, and just left him with a normal income like the average person, he would amount to nothing.
Purely on his own it's doubtful he could accomplish anything, since without the money and contacts, he still would be an arrogant cold blooded lying phony.
gemininimeg
Romney donated his entire inheritance to charity. It is a matter of public record. Just like liberal democrats everywhere you have no trouble spreading your filthy lies.
If it was not for Obama leading all those folks at the sit-ins in front of those banks that originally would not make those high risk loans, Obama would have nothing.